Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) drones struck Russia’s largest oil-loading port on the Baltic Sea, Primorsk, early on Friday, Sept. 12, a source in the SBU confirmed to Kyiv Post.
Primorsk is the final destination of the Baltic pipeline system and a crucial hub for loading Russia’s “shadow fleet,” which Moscow uses to evade international sanctions and sell oil on foreign markets.
The port handles about 60 million tons of oil annually, generating around $15 billion in revenue for Russia.
As a result of the strike, fires broke out on a ship docked at the port and at the pumping station, forcing oil shipments to be suspended, the source said. Estimated daily losses to Russia’s budget from the halted exports could reach $41 million, they added.
The SBU also targeted several Russian oil pumping stations – NPS-3, NPS Andreapol, and NPS-7 – key components of the main pipeline system that supplies crude oil to the Ust-Luga terminal.
“The SBU was the first to systematically introduce so-called drone sanctions against the Russian oil industry. They block the flow of petrodollars to the aggressor’s budget. And since the Russian economy depends on oil, every such strike undermines its ability to wage war against our state,” the SBU source said.
“These sanctions will last until a just peace comes to Ukraine,” the source added.
Previously, Kyiv Post wrote that Russia reported one of the largest drone raids of the war overnight, claiming to have downed 221 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions.
The strikes targeted the Primorsk oil port in the Leningrad region, where fires broke out on a vessel and at a pumping station before being extinguished, according to local governor Alexander Drozdenko.
Explosions were reported in the Leningrad, Bryansk, Kursk, and Moscow regions, with residents in St. Petersburg describing the assault as one of the most massive since the full-scale invasion began. Air traffic at Pulkovo Airport was disrupted, with dozens of flights delayed, canceled, or diverted.